Obama Makes Startling Admission

The White House Correspondent’s Dinner was this weekend and President Obama had some funny material written for him. For instance, speaking of how the stress of his job has aged him he said, “I’m not the strapping young Muslim socialist that I used to be.” Shall we start a pool on how long it takes the Worldnutdaily to get their “forensic profiler” to declare that this was actually an admission that he’s a Muslim socialist?

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

jamessweet

Heh, I had the same thought.

http://aceofsevens.wordpress.com Ace of Sevens

If I understand this forensic profilign thing, doesn’t that mean he’s not a Muslim socialist?

troll

You mean they haven’t already?

dingojack

Are negative times allowed?

Dingo

John Hinkle

If I understand this forensic profiling thing, doesn’t that mean he’s not a Muslim socialist?

The special characteristic about the Forensic Profiler is that his forensic profiles always seem to cast aspersions at Pres. Obama. In fact it’s indistinguishable from him pulling the profiles out of his ass.

tbp1

Oh, they’ve already done it. Given the obviously ironic/satirical nature of the comment, they’re claiming that it’s a case of “hiding the truth in plain sight” or something along those lines.

scienceavenger

Townhall is all over it already. Remember, these are people that don’t get the Colbert joke, you think they are going to figure out something this subtle?

No One

“… a book burning with Michelle Bachman.”

Ouch, that’s gonna leave a mark.

http://accidental-historian.typepad.com/accidental-historian/ Geds

scienceavenger @7: Townhall is all over it already. Remember, these are people that don’t get the Colbert joke, you think they are going to figure out something this subtle?

I’ve always suspected that this is just something smug liberals say without having any actual, y’know, proof. I mean, they might have missed it eight years ago for a bit, but by now it’s got to be pretty blatantly obvious to any random box turtle who happens to wander past the TV down at the Best Buy.

So I just Googled “townhall colbert.” This is the very first link that popped up:

Sure looks like someone who writes over at Townhall knows that Colbert is just doing an act and knew it over a year ago…

katie

My mother already got there even without Breitbart’s help. Alas.

Synfandel

A colleague gave me a plausible theory about the apparent lack of sense of humour among conservatives. The ability to appreciate humour, irony, satire, and so forth requires a degree of empathy. Conservatives tend as a category to be somewhat deficient in empathy. What do you think?

http://festeringscabofrealityblogspot.com fifthdentist

Personally, I would have written “gay Muslim atheist socialist” for the president, but that probably would have been considered to be too much.

@Synfandel,

That lack of empathy has long been my hypothesis for why conservatives (with the exception of P.J. O’Rourke) have no sense of humor and wouldn’t recognize irony if they were beaten to within an inch of their life with an irony stick.

lofgren

Geds, the belief that conservatives don’t realize that Colbert is irony is based on a University of Ohio study that found conservatives were more likely to believe that Colbert’s humor was intended to mock liberals while making solid conservative points. See:

To be grudgingly fair, I think the rightwingers do have a sense of humour – its just different from ours – and they can laugh when when the jokes are being made by those from the Right.

Indeed, in the ole mirror image thing many of the Right will accuse those Left (notably frex feminists) of humourlessness and not taking (understanding?) a joke. Of course most of their jokes aren’t funny.

(Humour is subjective.)

http://blog.nikhilkrishnaswamy.com nkrishna

I knew it! Insane theories: 1, regular theories: a billion!

http://accidental-historian.typepad.com/accidental-historian/ Geds

lofgren @13: Geds, the belief that conservatives don’t realize that Colbert is irony is based on a University of Ohio study that found conservatives were more likely to believe that Colbert’s humor was intended to mock liberals while making solid conservative points.

Huh. That’s interesting and I guess I can see how it would happen. Although the linked article is from 2009 and I wonder if that’s changed, since Colbert seems to be breaking the fourth wall far more regularly since the Tea Party took over.

kermit.

Synfandel, their lack of empathy is definitely an impediment to understanding humor, but I think a bigger handicap is their lack of introspection, the capacity to see themselves as others see them. This is related to the inability to see others as they see themselves, which is of course lack of empathy. If you cannot see yourself from outside, and cannot see others from their viewpoint, how could you possibly do or appreciate humor? They are especially clueless regarding irony and parody, and have trouble understanding that legal rights are for everybody.

.

Also, this is why they cannot do or appreciate science fiction on the whole. Empathy and introspection are special cases of “what if” questions.

“What if I had been born poor instead of rich; what differences would I have had to really deal with?”

“What if I were one of them, watching me right now? How would I look to them?”

“What if I had been born in Tehran – would I really have become a Southern Baptist?”

“What if I had a time machine?”

Etc.

.

thisisaturingtest

I think that, in cases like this, the lack of humor is easier to explain- they simply cannot afford to admit, even (especially?) to themselves, that they’ve said anything worth laughing at.

Rip Steakface

@17

Science fiction has been done fine by conservatives. Orson Scott Card is a deranged Mormon and wrote Ender’s Game, a personal favorite sci-fi. Heinlein is massively influential… and a paleoconservative, laisse-faire guy. In fact, I’d say that more sci fi has been done by libertarians and paleoconservatives than liberals, since liberals are more likely to write something closer to reality.

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About the Author

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. Read More...